Fox says one of two black panthers on the scene was "allegedly blocking the door," says another was "holding a nightstick." and adds that "the concern was that they were intimidating people who were trying to go inside to vote."

But Jacqueline Dischell, the Obama volunteer, tells me by phone that that's false.

Dischell confirms that there were in fact two black panthers guarding the polling place, a nursing home on Fairmont Avenue in north Philadelphia, earlier this morning.

But she says one was an officially designated poll watcher (it was not immediately clear which municipal office had designated him in that role), and the second was his friend. The second panther, who left two or three hours ago, was the one with the nightstick, she says.

What's the correct analogy to use - would it be a majority white polling place being guarded by Klan members? Police arrive.

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

This story is a fabrication on the part of Fox News. The polling place was on Fairmont in North Philly -- a very black neighborhood. I somehow doubt that local voters were very intimidated, especially given that the poll-watcher lived in the building where the polling place was(according to Fox New). The white volunteer in the background doesn't seem intimidated either. In fact, in the second video you hear her saying "they're not intimidating voters."